Hong Kong’s Article 23 domestic security bill advances to next stage with scope to add new offences
- Lawmakers express support for all 47 areas of changes proposed by government 15 hours earlier, with many making bill tougher than original draft
- If it clears House Committee on Friday, lawmakers can resume reading and possibly pass legislation at full Legco meeting, which source says can be called at any time
The head of a bills committee that scrutinised the proposed legislation will verbally deliver a report to the Legislative Council’s House Committee on Friday afternoon, a day after lawmakers expressed support for 47 changes proposed by the government.
If the House Committee clears the bill on Friday, the second reading of the legislation will be able to resume, allowing lawmakers to deliberate on the revised version before passing it at a full meeting of Legco.
Before the bill was gazetted and submitted to the legislature last Friday, when details of offences and penalties were revealed for the first time, the public could only read an outline of the new legislation in a consultation paper issued on January 30.
The bill has since been fast-tracked at Legco, which convened a special full session last Friday to clear the first reading. The bills committee immediately began deliberations on the original 181 clauses as well as the amendments in more than 40 hours of meetings spanning seven days.
Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok on Thursday maintained that the domestic national security legislation would safeguard human rights, praising lawmakers for their “high-quality” discussions in the past seven days as he addressed the final meeting of the bills committee.
